The Return of the God of War
by FlossSwallower
Summary: (Spoilers) Kratos thought he'd killed himself. But when he wakes up on a beach, the sun back in the sky, the seas calmed, and the monsters back in Tartarus, he's, to say the least, surprised. Kratos then meets Apollo, learning that the remaining gods basically restarted, replacing the dead gods Kratos had killed. Kratos is the new god of war, but there are new enemies on Olympus.


A groan came from the rocks. The Greek heard it. The Greek's name was Andrew. It was Sunday, the sun was shining, the sky was clear, the ocean was calm, but for some reason, the rocks were groaning. Andrew looked around the beach. He was alone. He shrugged it off, figuring it was just his imagination. There was no work to be done today, there was no danger in the air or havoc. It was a peaceful, calm day. He knew soon his wife would start worrying about him, he'd been gone a few hours now. But it seemed so hard to leave the beautiful beach. It still was early, and it wasn't often you got a break from work. Life was peaceful. It had been peaceful for a long time. Oceanus was keeping the seas calm, there were no earthquakes, life was overall just peaceful. As he walked off, he suddenly heard a noise. He turned around and saw one rock had fallen from the pile. Now another fell.

Andrew hesitated a second, then slowly began to walk towards the pile of rocks that lay against the cliff. What in the world could be inside there? He lightly touched one of the rocks, and suddenly the pile exploded with a roar. But it sounded like a human roar.

Several of the rocks blasted straight into Andrew, throwing him at least five feet back and practically crushing him. From the place where the pile once was, was the Ghost of Sparta.

Kratos stared around at the beach, at the water, at the sky. He breathed heavily, his hands rolled up into fists at his sides. He felt like he'd been asleep a long time. And from the looks of the world around him, he must have. Right now, this beach should be engulfed by the sea, the sky should be in never-ending storms, the sun should be extinguished, harpies and lost souls and other demons from the Underworld should be floating about, along with bugs and insects.. But for some reason, it was as if he'd never killed Poseidon, or Helios, Hades, Zeus, or any of the other gods. It was as if all the gods had restored their world to its normal form. But it made no sense. The last time Kratos had seen this world it had been in complete and total havoc. The mortals had all been dying, and so had Kratos. He glanced down at his stomach. There was no wound, no blood, no gaping hole. None of this made any sense.

Kratos heard a moan to his side, and sharply turned his head. A mortal, trapped underneath a rock. Kratos stomped over to the injured being, and kneeled by him.

"Tell me where I am, mortal," he ordered.

The mortal raised his eyes towards Kratos. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Before him stood what looked like a man, but couldn't be. Its skin was ashen-white, and along it's skin ran a red streak.

"Answer me, mortal!" Kratos shouted, shoving the rock off of the Greek and pulling him up by the neck in a swift and easy motion. The mortal moaned again.

"You are of no use to me," Kratos growled, throwing the mortal to the side and into the water. He studied the area. Despite Kratos's brute strength, his mind was as sharp as his blades. He'd learned the tough way that your enemies wouldn't fight with courage, sometimes they would cower in closed rooms. If all of the gods had fought with courage, his quest for vengeance would have been a much shorter one. The least cowardly, Poseidon, was the first to be killed, however. The gods may have been cowardly and back-stabbing, but they weren't dumb.

The only explanation Kratos could conjure up was that he was dead. Perhaps, as he killed himself, he was forgiven for his sins. Could this be part of the Elysian Fields? But what of Hades? Kratos had killed the god of the underworld himself, he had even stolen his weapons. And if Hades had somehow come back to life, the ghost of Sparta doubted that he would be transported to the Elysian Fields. If anything, he would be sent to Tartarus to suffer for all eternity. It was unlikely Hades would reward him for his skills in combat.

Kratos soon spotted a path winding up the hill. He jogged towards it, his mind still working to try and find out why he still was, and where he was.

As Kratos reached the top of the cliff, he suddenly remembered. This was where he had killed himself. Where he had looked upon all his destruction, all the death he'd brought to the world, and decided to cause one more death, that of himself. It was where Athena had pulled the sword out of him, where Athena had left him to die, and disappeared. And where Kratos had…. Where Kratos had crawled away… But he'd barely made it over the cliff, and he remembered being engulfed by the sea, then everything fading into black. Yet somehow, mere minutes ago, he'd awoken. Not at the bottom of the sea, not in Tartarus, not suffering from some sort of punishment. He'd merely woken up, covered by rocks, on a beach that seemed untouched by all his destruction. Well, until he'd killed the mortal. Which also made no sense. All the mortals were dead. They had either been drowned in the flood when Kratos had killed Poseidon, or died of the plague released from Helios when he'd been slaughtered by the ghost of Sparta, or been killed by one of the many hordes and hordes of monsters and demons that been released onto the earth, or even by Kratos himself.

"How do you like this new version of Earth, Kratos?" he heard a voice say from behind him.

Kratos sharply turned in the voice's direction. It had the same tone as a god, the same pride and pompous-ness. Before him stood a younger, handsome-looking man. He had an athletic build, and you could tell he knew the women loved him. The one odd thing about was his iris's were a bright golden color. His name was Apollo.

"Why am I alive, god of light?" Kratos shouted.

"My, do you love to shout. Let me ask you a question, did you ever take a dip in the River Styx, Kratos?" Apollo asked.

Kratos was silent in return, watching Apollo strut around as he talked.

"I have a feeling you did. Maybe while you were on your way to kill ol' Uncle Hades, you figured it wouldn't hurt to take a bath before you'd rip your own kin to pieces. But oh wait, by that time, you'd already ripped up bunches of your kin. Have you ever heard of Achilles? Quite a warrior. Not as bloodthirsty, brain-less, and revenge-filled as you, but he was a pretty great warrior. See, his mother dipped him in the River Styx. Held him by his heel and dipped him in as a baby. Turns out somebody found out and shot him right in his one vulnerable spot : his heel. Can you believe it? Beat thousands of warriors, was infamous for his wonderful skills in fighting, and died by getting shot in the foot. I guess your death was almost as ironic, you probably killed a little less than billions, and ended up killing yourself. Or at least you thought you did. But you see, you didn't even hold back, you jumped right all the way into that River Styx, so guess what? You're indestructible. But you see, even though trying to kill yourself doesn't actually kill you, it'll put you to sleep for quite a while. Long enough for Athena and the rest of the remaining gods to restart the world. We had just enough left to replace some gods, then reproduce and make some more. So guess what? I got a promotion. I'm god of the sun, Oceanus is god of all water now, and Athena took up Hera and Zeus's place, even if she's dead, we figured her ghost could still run the place. We let Perses take over the underworld, 'cause he's the ugliest. Especially after you kicked him off a cliff," Apollo explained.

Kratos remained silent.

"Anyway, we figured, since we can't kill ya, why don't ya join us? We still need a god of war, and since you already have experience in that job, we figured you'd be a good fit. Or you could be our new courier god, 'cause it's getting real tiring without Hermes around, but you'd probably rather be god of war than god of mail-men," Apollo said.

"And be betrayed by the gods again?" Kratos spat out.

"Aw no, we wouldn't wanna mess with you. Especially since it wouldn't make a bit of difference. We just need someone to handle all our wars. We fixed everything else, but nothing wrong with some war, keeps Earth interesting," Apollo replied.

"If I am invincible, why don't I just kill you right here and now?" Kratos said.

"Well, I might not be able to kill ya, but I can still get away from you," Apollo said.

"And you couldn't get away from me after you stabbed me in the back?" Kratos asked.

"No. We know about how much you love your little revenge trips, especially when they're revenge trips to kill gods. I guess god blood must taste good, huh? So whaddoya say, wanna take up the position of lord of battle? God of war? Ruler of fights?" Apollo proposed.

Kratos was silent once again for a moment, then said, "I shall become your new god of war, but if you betray me once again, I'll rip your head from your torso as I did with Helios."

"Boy, you really are bloody. By the way, take this, I suppose you earned it," Apollo said, throwing him his bow. Kratos caught it.

"Come on, let's take my chariot. You should see how we fixed up Mount Olympus," Apollo said, putting his arm around Kratos.

Kratos stared at Perses. He was sure he'd killed the Titan. But here the giant stood, towering up to an amazing height. He was missing an eye, the eye that Kratos had destroyed. And he thought he'd killed the Titan himself. He had been completely sure. But now here he stood. And Kratos knew there wasn't going to be a peaceful relationship between him and the giant.

Kratos took his eyes off the Titan and looked around. Perses wasn't the only giant there, there was also another Titan, Oceanus. The two Titan's looked almost identical except for the fact that instead of the red that ran through the bricks Perses was made of, blue ran across Oceanus. On another part of the platform stood Aphrodite, and on yet another stood Dionysus. Dionysus was one of the few gods Kratos had never met. There were other random gods on the platform on top of Mount Olympus. The ghost of Sparta felt that he wouldn't have a peaceful relationship with any of them.

"So, how do you like Mount Olympus? At least, it's new re-stored form. You destroyed the last one," Kratos heard a voice say. Gods, that was the second person that had snuck up on him in one day. It was starting to make him un-easy. He turned around to see a man dressed in golden armor, with a golden helmet, gauntlets, and golden boots. He was Achilles.

"So, you're the new god of war? I thought that'd be my job, but apparently they're making me the god of strength. Odd, huh? But I guess you killed Hercules, your own brother, right?" Achilles said, and sipped from a chalice he was holding, keeping his eyes on Kratos.

"I killed my brother because he attacked me," Kratos replied.

"I'm sure," Achilles said.

"The god of light told me you were dead," Kratos spat.

"Well, it's about the same deal as with you, ghost of Sparta. They're just taken any of us ol' dead guys and turning us into gods. Say, how'd you like the River Styx?" Achilles said.

"Don't fool around with me, Achilles. I fear no mortal," Kratos said.

"I am no mortal, Kratos," Achilles said, and the two stood staring at each other for a moment, before Achilles walked off.

No, Mount Olympus definitely wasn't a place of easy friendships.


End file.
